Project sponsorship is the ownership of projects on behalf of the client organization; secondly the project sponsor is responsible for the project's business case and should not hesitate to recommend cancellation of the project if the business case no longer justifies the project. Project sponsors are individuals or groups, mainly corporate entities that have a role in ensuring that project is adequately financed and supported technically. The sponsors liaise with project proponents to ensure that the project ideas are planned, managed and monitored in a required time frame. Sometimes project sponsors are also the holders of initial project ideas because they are interested in each stage of project development. In normal circumstances project sponsors only get responsible for the funding of the project and they do not have any technical expertise. Government projects are normally sponsored by the ex-chequer and grants or loans from corporate bodies, hence by the public funds. In such a case the sponsor is also indirectly the end user [the public] and he/she the public plays a double role. The project sponsor, whether public or private takes part in the budget estimate of the project because the expenditure can only make sense in a prudent budgetary process. In government projects the budgetary process is handled by national treasury teams and they also oversee the expenditure.

Required: a. What is the role of project sponsor in an on-going project. (4 marks)

b. For a highway construction project, the project sponsor is employed by the state. In contrast, the project manager is employed by the construction company and submits project updates and requests funding changes from the project sponsor. Choose one of the above and assume you are either project sponsor or project manager in the highway construction case. Write a business justification for the project. (16 marks)